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Meet Bill Dueease, President & Co-Founder of The Coach Connection, LLC

Bill was successful business coach at the time he started The Coach Connection. He had also been a sales consultant trainer, a business broker, a real estate agent, and a real estate investor over the years. He had conducted over 850 paid coaching hours in only three years, with business owner clients who generated over $2,000,000 in additional profits within 3 months, (by operating small businesses) as a direct result of Bill’s coaching. Bill’s clients also greatly reduced their business related stress and hours involved in their business.

After working for Phillips Petroleum Company for 5 years, Bill was the driving force behind taking small refining company in 1975 named LaJet Inc. to become an extremely profitable (Bill directly generated over $120 million in pretax profits) mid-sized refining, distribution and trading company in only 5 years. He had so much fun building Lajet, from only processing 900 barrels per day to processing and handling over 60,000barrels per day, and into a world class organization with offices from London England to California that he frequently pinched himself to be sure he was not dreaming. But like all such things it came to an end in 1980 when the owners jettisoned Bill because their egos and substance abuses could no longer tolerate having to accept Bill’s positive contributions. He started Aspen Energy Inc. in 1980 and it quickly became a very successful petroleum trading company. He was the organizing co-founder of Cardrona Ski area in New Zealand. He and his partners converted a mountain in 1981, previously used to graze sheep, into the most popular and profitable ski area in New Zealand and Australia combined in only 6 short years. They went public in 1987 and sold out in 1989. Bill also created The Office Outfitters in 1993 to be the very first company to provide next day delivery of office products, throughout the US, at prices below the superstores. This was before the Internet was discovered. A group offered to buy Bill out for a price that was many times higher that the market value of the business in May of 1995. Bill closed the purchase in only 6 calendar days.

Bill looked around for something to do. He was convinced he found the answers as a result of religiously completing the self-analysis test in the “What Color Is Your Parachute” book. Yet, he went from business broker, to sales training specialist for an international consulting company, to becoming a business coach, and in essence drifted and searched for five years until he hired his own life coach. Thom Politico. Through coaching with Thom, Bill finally found his real calling and started The Coach Connection in 2001.

Bill earned the designation of Certified Business Analyst from The Florida Small Business Development Center Network. He holds a Florida Real Estate Brokers License. He graduated from the University of Alabama in 1967 with a Bachelors of Science degree in Industrial Engineering. In 1968, he earned a Masters of Science degree in Industrial Engineering and Management from Oklahoma State University. Bill was honorably discharged after 2 years of active duty in Germany, as a First Lieutenant in the US Army.

Bill was featured in a 1988 film made for TV by PBS and the New Zealand Government. The film described how an American (Bill) organized a team of three New Zealanders and himself to develop the popular Cardrona Ski Area in New Zealand. The film was shown on US, New Zealand, and Australian TV. Bill was featured in a two-page article published on the front page of the Fort Myers News Press Business Section describing how business owners benefit from his coaching program. Bill was also recently invited to discuss “Coaching” at the Financial Planners Association Conference in Boston. Bill’s self help articles for business owners have been published over 55 times throughout the US and Canada, by over 32 Magazines and periodicals, including: Opportunity World, Emerging Markets, Dynamic Business, Business Profile, Buying Power, Wards Dealer Business, Atlantic Chamber Journal, Home Business Journal, Money and Profits, American Small Business Association (ASBA), Independent Computer Consultants Association (ICCA), Commerce and Industry, Newstrack-Executive Information Service, Dallas Woman, and Business Success.

Bill is a past director of the American Heart Association of Fort Myers, past director of the Caloosa Nature Center, a past Rotarian with 10.5 years of perfect attendance, Chapter Host and past Chairman of the Membership Development Committee for the International Coaching Federation (ICF), and Past President of the Heritage Farms Property Association for 10 years.

Bill and his wife (Chris) and two children (Will and Michele) live in Fort Myers, Florida, and his two daughters (Heather and Jane) live in Austin, Texas.